CD Reviews

Be Your Own Pet

Get Awkward | Ecstatic Peace/Universal

By MIKAEL WOOD | March 12, 2008

2.5 Stars

These fresh-faced Nashville kids made a splash in 2006 with a debut album of teen-tantrum punk that nobody had to imagine was just an act — Be Your Own Pet were bored young people, and they sounded like it. Two years later, blonde-bombshell frontwoman Jemina Pearl and her mates haven’t exactly reached maturity. There are tunes on this sophomore disc about Robocop and eating brains and not wanting to go to bed, but the playing is no more polished than it was last time. What BYOP now lack is the element of surprise that made their debut such a kick; they no longer sound as if they had something to prove, and that drains their music of much of its charm. Which doesn’t mean that their Ramones/Stooges/Yeah Yeah Yeahs pastiche isn’t a sharp one — just that you can feel it coming a mile away.

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Topics: CD Reviews , be your own PET, be your own PET, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

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